


Cogito, Ergo Amo

by Sombre



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:59:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3358484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sombre/pseuds/Sombre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, it just slips into your consciousness, unnoticed and unannounced. Inaho doesn't seem to mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cogito, Ergo Amo

**Author's Note:**

> Episode 7 divergence -- how things might have gone if Slaine was captured instead of nearly drowned.

Inaho Kaizuka didn’t know why it took him so long to notice his eyes.

Striking. Expressive. Teal and reflective. He would watch them when he could, at meals, at meetings, their interactions otherwise infrequent and usually brief.

In one of them, he frowns at Inaho. Inaho makes sure to commit this one to memory. His arms crossed, brows furrowed, eyes narrowed, blue like flame. Inaho watches him, waiting.

“Sometimes,” Slaine begins, and the fire intensifies. “Sometimes I think you say things to piss me off on purpose.”

He isn’t lying.

There is a side to Slaine he rarely reveals. It’s combative, rebellious. And it only ever shows in his eyes. Inaho wants to see it.

“It’s not exactly like that,” Inaho says.

Slaine inclines his head.

“You just aren’t good at reading people.”

Both Asseylum and Yuki sit him down that night, begging him to just get along, really, they had been on a ship together for four months already, why couldn’t they just do that? But it was always worth it for the mental images he could add to his collection, for the week of glares and scowls and caustic side comments to follow.

Soon, though, Inaho gives in to his curiosity. Stops poking fun and pushing buttons, actually talks to him. And this time, it’s about more than his knowledge of the Vers army’s battle strategies. Inaho reasons that it must have been hell living there as a Terran, and it’s only when the two of them are alone, distinctly away from Asseylum’s ears, that Slaine admits it.

It’s only when they are alone that Slaine allows himself to cry about it.

Inaho’s curiosity gets all wrapped up in him then. When Slaine cries, Inaho listens. About when he crash landed on Mars and Asseylum saved his life. About when his father died. About when the counts ripped him away from his best friend and beat him, mercilessly. It almost hurts just to listen to, and Inaho can’t even take refuge in his eyes, wet with tears, looking away with shame. So he offers a bit of himself in exchange. How his parents were killed in the war when he was young, and he and Yuki had to raise themselves. How they had gone to bed without food some nights because they hadn’t had the money.

But Inaho also gives him reassurance. No being beaten with canes or kicked around. No social-standing-enforced barriers. No contempt. Not here.

After six months with them, he is sure Slaine already understands this. But nevertheless, the gratitude in his voice is nothing compared to the tears of relief, the upturn of his lips.  Inaho smiles.

He likes that expression a lot more, he thinks, and saves it.

He quickly realizes he can’t exactly keep it there long, though, that expression. Even though Slaine has managed to get along with the rest of the crew, he always finds something to worry about, biting his lip, wrapped up in his emotions. He’s barely finished learning the basics of piloting a Terran kataphrakt, but that doesn’t stop him from jumping into one and nearly dying to save the princess in a battle that comes too close. All Inaho thinks he can do is deflect his friends’ questions when they ask Slaine about his past, or get in the way of any arguments that might arise. He even gives Slaine his own dessert sometimes, just to see that smile of gratitude, that joy. But it’s never enough.

A tiny voice in his head tells him he’s just being selfish. A slightly louder voice tells him it’s probably not a bad thing, in this case. Inaho listens to that one.

Yuki spends a lot of time smiling at him, especially when Slaine is around, and Inaho doesn’t understand why. For awhile.

But ten months, fourteen days, nine hours, and seven minutes after Slaine Troyard is captured, detained, and reunited with his princess, through the battles that nearly kill the both of them, and the quiet conversations that trail into the wee hours of the night, Inaho thinks he finally understands.

He sips warm green tea and watches the sunset in the cafeteria window. On the other side of the table, Slaine is chatting excitedly about something. But so wrapped up is Inaho in his own thoughts for once that he isn’t paying attention.

Suddenly, he puts his mug down and steps out from the table.

“I-Inaho-san?”

Slaine cuts himself off mid-sentence, his voice echoing slightly in an otherwise empty room. His eyes are wide and questioning, shadows catching in his hair. This, too, Inaho thinks, is worth saving.

He leans down, intertwines their fingers, and kisses him on the cheek.

“I like you, Slaine Troyard.”

It’s the most natural, logical conclusion.

Slaine’s blushes and stutters and stammers, all those are, too.

“Oh,” he says softly, squeezing Inaho’s hand, white bangs shifting as he turns away. “Thank goodness.”

And when he reaches up to kiss back, Inaho knows he’s found something far more important to protect.


End file.
